Ian Wright is confident Arsenal will do all they can to mount a fresh Premier League title challenge next season after the disappointment of being chased down by Manchester City.
Mikel Arteta's side held an eight-point advantage over City at one point but a poor run of results in the title run-in, including three consecutive draws against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, would ultimately scupper their hopes of silverware.
The Manchester City juggernaut moved into top gear around the same time to leave Gunners' supporters to consider what might have been, with their defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground officially signalling the end of their title aspirations - for this campaign at least.
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That ensured Pep Guardiola's side would claim the crown for the fifth time in six years, to leave the chasing pack to solve the conundrum of just how to mount a sustained challenge to City's current dominance.
Wright, a Premier League winner with Arsenal in 1998, has outlined the task facing the club - and the rest of the division - in trying to usurp Manchester City's position at the summit of English football and is confident Arteta and Edu will already be planning for next season, even as the disappointment of this one continues to sink in.
Wright told Premier League Productions: "I don’t think you can question the quality of the manager [Pep Guardiola], the players, the intensity, their determination to win, to have a standard of football that we are talking about as some of the greatest we’ve ever seen.
"We can’t ignore that they have got the capability of buying the players where they can continue to replenish a squad that we’ve seen just demolish teams.
"Look at Liverpool trying to chase them down, you saw what happened to Arsenal, Arsenal drew three games and we know that Manchester City are able to go on that run where you can’t afford to do that because they do not slip up at this stage of the season.
"This is why five out of six Premier Leagues they’ve won, because they’ve got the best coach, they’ve got the best team, they’ve got great resources, it’s very difficult for other teams to live up to the pressure, Liverpool lost one game.
"You know the levels they’re setting, that’s why it’s a tough job for Arsenal, it’s going to be so hard. But I think Edu and Mikel are all over it in trying to bring the kind of player who can sustain a challenge."
Arsenal end their season with the visit of Wolves to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday May 28, with Arteta and the Gunners' faithful looking for the side to sign off in style as a season that promised so much but, in terms of silverware at least, delivered so little, draws to a close.
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